
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.Rabindranath Tagore
These 247 quotes on happiness come straight from the QuotePlace collection — lines by poets, philosophers, leaders and artists across the centuries. Open any card to read the quote on its own page and meet the author behind it.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.Rabindranath Tagore

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.Gautama Buddha

Be realistic: plan for a miracle.Osho

What you seek is seeking you.Rumi

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life.Kahlil Gibran

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.Dalai Lama

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.Gautama Buddha

Don't worry, be happy.Meher Baba

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.Kahlil Gibran

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.Kahlil Gibran

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.Dalai Lama

To learn and at due times to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure?Confucius

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.Lao Tzu

I would like to make a film to tell children: it's good to be alive.Hayao Miyazaki

In spring it is the dawn that is most beautiful.Sei Shōnagon

Because you are alive, everything is possible.Thich Nhat Hanh

Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.Thich Nhat Hanh

The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.Thich Nhat Hanh

After darkness comes light.Kartini

The youth is the hope of our future.José Rizal

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity.Germaine Greer

It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames.Clive James

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.Charles Dickens

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.John Lennon

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.John Keats

We're all mad here.Lewis Carroll

All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.J.M. Barrie

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.Victor Hugo

Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.Victor Hugo

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Without music, life would be a mistake.Friedrich Nietzsche

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.Anne Frank

Dwell on the beauty of life.Marcus Aurelius

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.Leo Tolstoy

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.Helen Keller

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.Walt Whitman

Don't worry about a thing, 'cause every little thing gonna be all right.Bob Marley

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.Epicurus

Laughter is the language of the soul.Pablo Neruda

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.Marcus Aurelius

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.Desmond Tutu

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.Seneca

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.Zhuangzi

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.Cicero

We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.Eduardo Galeano

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!Jane Austen

Don't go outside your house to see flowers. My friend, don't bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers.Kabir

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, a Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou.Omar Khayyam

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.Mahatma Gandhi

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.John Keats

I find ecstasy in living; the mere sense of living is joy enough.Emily Dickinson

I hope the exit is joyful — and I hope never to return.Frida Kahlo

There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.George Sand

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.Jiddu Krishnamurti

Give others confidence, give others joy, give others hope, give others convenience.Hsing Yun

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.Albert Schweitzer

I would rather eat a meal without meat than live in a house without bamboo.Su Shi

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.Dalai Lama

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.Oscar Wilde

Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.Ramana Maharshi

For the raindrop, joy is in entering the river.Mirza Ghalib

Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.John Stuart Mill

If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.Amir Khusrau

Beauty is no more than the promise of happiness.Stendhal

In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.Okakura Kakuzo

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.Roald Dahl

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.Thich Nhat Hanh

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.Thich Nhat Hanh

Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.Thich Nhat Hanh

All the happiness in this world arises from wishing others to be happy; all the suffering arises from wishing oneself to be happy.Shantideva
Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.Sophocles
Great talent finds happiness in execution.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.Pearl Buck
Loss is nothing else but change,and change is Natures delight.Marcus Aurelius
There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.Thich Nhat Hanh
He who is contented is rich.Lao Tzu
Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.Napoleon Hill
Keep yourself to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.Helen Keller
All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within.Horace Friess
To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have.Ken S. Keyes
Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.Gautama Buddha
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.Benjamin Disraeli
The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.Richard Bach
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to beAbraham Lincoln
Before you put on a frown, make absolutely sure there are no smiles available.Jim Beggs
If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine.Morris West
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.Abraham Lincoln
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.Marcel Proust
The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.Alan Cohen
In order to live free and happily you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.Richard Bach
Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.Sri Chinmoy
We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.Anne Frank
Today, give a stranger a smile without waiting for it may be the joy they need to have a great day.Byron Pulsifer
People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness. Just because theyre not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.Dalai Lama
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.G. K. Chesterton
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.Johannes Gaertner
The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.Charles Lamb
The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.Thomas Chalmers
There is no duty we so underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.Robert Louis Stevenson
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.Epictetus
Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.Margaret Cousins
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.Alfred Tennyson
We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.Helen Keller
What matters is the value we've created in our lives, the people we've made happy and how much we've grown as people.Daisaku Ikeda
Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.Franklin Roosevelt
Happiness depends upon ourselves.Aristotle
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.Dalai Lama
People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.Lee Mildon
They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.Confucius
Not what we have but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance.John Petit-Senn
Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.Blaise Pascal
Happiness is a Swedish sunset — it is there for all, but most of us look the other way and lose it.Mark Twain
Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and…Denis Waitley
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.Ralph Waldo Emerson
The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.Thich Nhat Hanh
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.Alphonse Karr
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.Gautama Buddha
Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.Nathaniel Hawthorne
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word — excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.Pearl Buck
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.Gautama Buddha
A lot of times people look at the negative side of what they feel they can't do. I always look on the positive side of what I can do.Chuck Norris
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while its on your plate — that's my philosophy.Thornton Wilder
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.James Oppenheim
The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.Martha Washington
It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis.Margaret Wander Bonanno
You are special, you are unique, you are the best!Cathy Pulsifer
Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.Dale Carnegie
Happiness is the reward we get for living to the highest right we know.Richard Bach
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.Cheng Yen
Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness.Richard Bach
If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.Andy Rooney
Joy is the best makeup.Anne Lamott
Happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors.Dalai Lama
Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.Wayne Dyer
The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.Pema Chodron
On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows, In every rill a sweet instruction flows.Edward Young
Don't frown because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.Sinvyest Tan
It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment.Naomi Williams
Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.Mark Twain
The exercise of an extraordinary gift is the supremest pleasure in life.Mark Twain
It is difficult to achieve a spirit of genuine cooperation as long as people remain indifferent to the feelings and happiness of others.Dalai Lama
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different…John Ruskin
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.Gautama Buddha
The happy and efficient people in this world are those who accept trouble as a normal detail of human life and resolve to capitalize it when it comes…H. Bertram Lewis
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.Robert Brault
The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which…Bertrand Russell
Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.John Barrymore
Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.Maori proverb
Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.Jack Buck
When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and…Tenzin Gyatso
To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.Walter Benjamin
For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.William Blake
Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.Ralph Waldo Emerson
True happiness means forging a strong spirit that is undefeated, no matter how trying our circumstances.Daisaku Ikeda
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.Barack Obama
Compassion and happiness are not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.Dalai Lama
The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.Anais Nin
We can do no great things, only small things with great love.Mother Teresa
Remembering a wrong is like carrying a burden on the mind.Gautama Buddha
The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.Carlos Castaneda
Prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want.Geoffrey F. Abert
It is never too late. Even if you are going to die tomorrow, keep yourself straight and clear and be a happy human being today.Lama Yeshe
By accepting yourself and being fully what you are, your presence can make others happy.Jane Roberts
You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.Wayne Dyer
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.Mark Twain
Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.Hausa
It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.Max Planck
If only wed stop trying to be happy wed have a pretty good time.Edith Wharton
Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Happiness does not come about only due to external circumstances; it mainly derives from inner attitudes.Dalai Lama
You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.Ziggy
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.Albert Camus
To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.Mark Twain
So is cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more remains.Ralph Waldo Emerson
The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure.Francoise de Motteville
Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.Doris Day
Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.Marianne Williamson
The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind.Ella Wilcox
Simply put, you believer that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.Wayne Dyer
Our ability to achieve happiness and success depends on the strength of our wings.Catherine Pulsifer
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.Melody Beattie
Into each life rain must fall but rain can be the giver of life and it is all in your attitude that makes rain produce sunshine.Byron Pulsifer
Sometimes the cards we are dealt are not always fair. However you must keep smiling and moving on.Tom Jackson
I tell you, deep inside you is a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
My heart is like a singing bird whose nest is in a watered shoot; my heart is like an apple-tree whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit.Christina Rossetti
I am convinced my mother always spoke the truth — in the days of my childhood, fairies used to live in the moon.Jaun Elia
A body of clay, a mind brimming with joy, a life of one fleeting moment — that is my introduction.Harivansh Rai Bachchan
Everyone stands one step away from happiness; every house is short of just one room.Javed Akhtar
We have a little, and a little is all we need; life, somehow, carries on.Gulzar
We are not amused.Queen Victoria
Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures. Don't take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up.Sam Walton
The day I am not able to fly will be a sad day for me.Ratan Tata
The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.Pele
To see the ball, to run after it, makes me the happiest man in the world.Diego Maradona
Money is not a motivating factor. Money doesn't thrill me or make me play better. I'm just happy with a ball at my feet.Lionel Messi
If you can do what you do best and be happy, you're further along in life than most people.Leonardo DiCaprio
The most important thing is to enjoy your life — to be happy — it's all that matters.Audrey Hepburn
I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most…Audrey Hepburn
To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it.Charlie Chaplin
The International Space Station is my happy place.Sunita Williams

Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.Rumi

Know satisfaction and you shall not be imperiled; then you will long endure.Lao Tzu

Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself. It is wrong to expect some final satisfaction to come from money or from a computer.Dalai Lama

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.Albert Einstein

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.Thich Nhat Hanh

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.Oprah Winfrey

Imagine all the people living life in peace.John Lennon

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.Dr. Seuss

Making money is happiness, but making other people happy is super-happiness.Muhammad Yunus

There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow-creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.Charlotte Brontë

Make each day of the week like Friday and your life will take on new enthusiasm.Byron Pulsifer

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.Marcus Aurelius

Happiness depends on leisure; for we are busy to have leisure, and make war to live in peace.Aristotle

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more.Oprah Winfrey

Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.Mother Teresa

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.Albert Camus

Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears — it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear.Oliver Sacks

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.Ralph Waldo Emerson

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.Richard Bach

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.Epictetus

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.Kahlil Gibran

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.Thich Nhat Hanh

Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.Rabindranath Tagore

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.Mark Twain

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.Mother Teresa

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves — say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.Victor Hugo

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.Friedrich Nietzsche

To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.Pearl S. Buck

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.Robin Williams

The most sophisticated people I know – inside they are all children.Jim Henson

We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.Bob Ross

If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem.Richard Bach

Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.Dalai Lama

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.Kahlil Gibran

Be happy, but never satisfied.Bruce Lee

The secret to humor is surprise.Aristotle

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.Mark Twain

Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.Dalai Lama

A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.Dalai Lama

Self-worth comes from one thing: thinking that you are worthy.Wayne Dyer

He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Progress equals happiness.Tony Robbins

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.Eleanor Roosevelt

Making money is a happiness; making other people happy is a super happiness.Muhammad Yunus